So that's the rs64 with 35mm lense and a retail of 6499 correct? has anyone figured out when these will ship?

In less than two-three weeks from what I hear.

RS64-35mm

Good choice
I placed my order for this one last week with TNVC, now I wait.

I like that one!

Tips on sighting in a thermal scope? What warm target do you use?

Either a handheld warmer pasted to a target board with duct tape or a visible laser already cowitnessed with a day optic prior to removing the day optic.

You could also put the rifle in a vise and put the laser on a 50 yard target and then put the thermal sight on the bullseye with a hand warmer.

After first getting POA=POI at 50 yards, I then move out to 200 yards to make final adjustment for POA=POI, after that, forget about it!

You can also target practice during day on frozen plastic water bottles/aluminum cans or plastic water bottles/aluminum cans filled with hot water at night.

Sometimes I fill gallon milk jugs with hot water and put them at 100, 200, 250, 300 yards and then blow them up at night with the thermal with one shot each for fun.

Here is a video with a couple of dead water jugs at 100 yards using thermal at night in my backyard:

http://www.phossil.com/thom/Night%20Vision/ACOG%20TO2/FLIR%20Water%20Jugs.wmv

Just some more FLIR RS Thermal Weapon scope porn....





So far I have got to say that I really DO LIKE the RS32-35mm lens and the RS32-19mm lens scopes, they actually perform way better than I thought they would (very clear with a wide field of view) and are perfectly capable of a 225 yard accurate targeting shot even when magnified, these are the best bang for the buck in thermal that I know.

The two RS64-60mm lens and the RS32-60mm lens are great for long range targeting but you give up allot of FOV in the process, would work excellent out in wide open pastures, agricultural crops, and higher mountain elevations where you had 300+ yards of clear view at night.

Skypup, I am interested in clearing up questions regarding two factors with these scopes.
Your observations, please.

First, in an ordinary scope, pre-focused and hence parallax free at, say 100 yards, the paralax rears its head at the other ranges and cheek weld, etc., become very important. In the thermal, the image is against a fixed focal plane array and then appears for the eye on a OLED screen. The eye position is irrevelant in terms of the rays traced through the optical array.
So, am I correct in assuming that parallax in the normal meaning is not a factor?

Second, what would you declare the closest "reasonably" focused image through the 320
35 mm scope is? Very close shots are important to me - shots as close as 25 feet.

Thanks for all of your work. You are saving the guys a fortune in time and mistakes in their purchases.

Feeble-Prize, you are lucky as I just talked to a FLIR engineer about that:

15.5 feet for the 19mm (Hyperfcocal distance is 31 feet) to infinity

36.5 feet for the 35mm (Hyperfocal distance is 73 feet) to infinity

From WiKiPedia -> The hyperfocal distance is the closest distance at which a lens can be focused while keeping objects at infinity acceptably sharp. When the lens is focused at this distance, all objects at distances from half of the hyperfocal distance out to infinity will be acceptably sharp.

Did not get info on the 60mm but it would be longer...but the objective is focusable to close in on closer objects.

As far as the parallax and cheekweld goes, I am not sure about that 100% but apparently to me it does function similar to an Eotech holographic sight. I did notice some blur around the edges of the OLED screen moving my head around the glass ocular lens but no deviation in the reticule from any angle.

In fact, when you step up the magnification, you can visually see the reticule take a noticeable jump to stay POA=POI at different magnifications, you can also ramp up the magnification in an infinite zoom instead of in steps, and you can watch the reticule move with the varying magnification.

UPDATE -> Parallax is a 100% NON-ISSUE per FLIR discussion after this post....

Many thanks.
I'd like to meet the engineer.

Another very important factor for people to consider in their minds is the relation between the core and the lens.

For any 320 core combined with a 35mm or 60mm lens, the FOV will be 1/2 that of what you will get with the 640 core and the same lens.

In other words the 640 core will double your FOV through the same lens.

That is a consideration in function, utility, and price because most of the time my thermal units are being used in their widest FOV mode possible (with least magnification) 98% of the time I am using the instruments in the woods.

Thoughts?

Precisely why I went with the RS64 35mm, I wanted a big FOV for searching my surroundings but not give up magnification when targeting. Seemed to be the best combination from the RS lineup.

That is a damn nice high performance unit, I think you will be very happy with that, RichV.

Most of my place is wooded as well. I prefer a wide FOV, because I must FIND targets before I can take any action at all.
I am NOT saying that I scan with a rifle scope. What I AM saying is that after scanning with a hand-held thermal or I^2 NV, there is no way to mark or exactly locate the target while switching over to a rifle. So, even when I "know" where the target is, (next to some tree amongst thousands just like it, I still must re-acquire with the rifle, and in the woods that isn't very quick with narrow FOV.

On the same kind of subject, I have attached an IR laser to my hand held thermal. It came with no laser.  It's not pretty and it is nowhere near "accurate", but it serves the critical function of marking for my I^2 left eye where it must shift to examine a thermal-detected interesting subject. I don't know about the other guys, but when I scan with thermal with my right eye, my PVS-14 over there on the left is cockeyed relative to the thermal view. A Marty Feldman view of the world. When I see something with the thermal, I can put a spot on it that I can see in the not-centered view of the 14. Then I can instantly shift over to that spot for a good staring-at with the 14.

Damn he was hilarious, just could not pass that up, what a terrific actor and human being.

GAAAK!!

That post is an epiphany to me. I've been mentally viewing the FOV/resolution/magnification relationship from the perspective of "at x distance for y field of view, it would give z pixels/area." For some reason, I wasn't devoting enough brain power to realize the layout of the equation. Instead of "I sacrifice resolution to get a given magnification at wide FOV," it becomes "I sacrifice FOV to get similar resolution at a given magnification."

Is that correct, or did I just make my old college physics teacher have a stroke?

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Pretty much so, the 640 core gives double the FOV at distance and has 4X the number of pixels of the 320 with the same lens (35mm or 60mm) for clearer resolution and increased contrast of the targeted subject.

Damn this is awfully close to getting me on board for one.  Will these clear a low pro buis like a KAC micro?  These are looking more and more attractive.  Any possibility of additional reticles styles in the future?  Just to make sure I understand the snippet from the manual, these have a grid for recording reticle position on multiple platforms correct?

The wait is gonna suck. Put a good word in for me. I had to select "other" for "where I heard about the product", since there was no "SkyPup" or a place to write in what other was exactly. Vic should have his web guy fix that.

Hey Vic, I have a 10-yr old Cohiba Siglo VI with your name on if I get my RS in 3 weeks. After 4 it goes down to an Opus X. Any longer and maybe a Swisher Sweet.

LOL

Yes, the position of X and Y value will be the same every time. If available in the futre, reticle updates would go through the USB port...

Sort of what I thought, would be great to have a reticle with bdc and ranging stadia.  I'm just imagining all the possibilities

This weekend I was fortunate enough to have a FLIR RS-32 60mm  weapon sight gracing my Sig 556 SWAT.  I wanted to post in here to give my impressions of the hardware and try to help answer just a few of the questions that seem to come up on a regular basis.  SkyPup already posted most of the worthy pictures, so I'll just ramble here and you can fill in the images from his post...

First off, I can't thank Angelo and FLIR enough for providing the equipment and the technical expertise.  Next up, Vic and Kyle from TNVC, what can I say?  You guys are first class and so much fun to hang out with.  Skypup, gets may thanks for hosting, and even though I get to come hunt often, it never gets old, and there's always something that happens we've never seen before...  Even though the weather was a bit challenging, we were still successful and I think everyone had a great time.

On to my impressions though...

I just recently had installed my new DBAL-D2 on the Sig and sighted it in, so I knew my zero was correct.  When Angelo arrived, he unveiled the FIVE, (yes FIVE) different RS scopes he had brought.  Before I could even blink, SkyPup stole the top of the line RS64 model and ran off giggling towards his rifle and the waiting 'sight in' range.  That left me with the RS-32 60mm model.  As the model number infers, it has the 320 x 240 display and a 60mm microbolometer.  Additionally, it has a native 4x magnification(in 1x mode)and is capable of up to 16x in the 4x mode.  In retrospect, I would have chosen a different unit, but that's why we do these 'tests' and then publish the results for everyone to review.

LEARNING THE FEATURES & SIGHTING IN
The 'sight-in' process was fast and very easy.  Angelo walked out to our paper target with a small hand warmer pouch and some silver duct tape.  He taped the hand warmer to the paper target and walked back.  In the meantime, I removed my Eotech EXPS3 and the 3x magnifier.  I then clamped the RS64 (with it's very reliable LaRue Tactical mount) on the rail and powered it up.  By the way, the RS clears my DBAL-D2 quite nicely on the Sig SWAT Rail.  The boot-up on the RS is very quick, maybe 5 seconds?  The display inside is a decent size, very similar, if not identical to the LS64.  

The first thing Angelo advised me to do is to adjust the Ocular lens (Ocular being the closest to the eye).  You dial the focus ring in until the display screen and reticule is crisp and well-defined.  I noticed that if I dialed it in to optimum focus I could actually see the rectangular pixels in the display itself. Next, Angelo instructed me to get familiar with the Menu and the Menu buttons.  Those are located along the top rail of the scope and are rubberized with distinct textures that allow you to learn them based on feel. The buttons take a little to get used to, but once you spend a little time with them it becomes fairly easy.  The Power button is located halfway down the optic towards the Objective Lens end. Next is the + or Up Button, followed by the 'Menu' button, and then finally closest to your eye is the - or Down button.  It's a pretty simple Menu system that consists of 3-4 primary functions and as you drill down into each menu, there's never more than 4 or 5 sub menus.  As a software and User Interface design person, this is critical to making the unit very configurable, but still easy to understand and use.  While playing around in the menus, I selected one of the three pre-programmed reticules (Fine Crosshair, Duplex Crosshair, and German), the green reticle color (red and black are also available), and the I set the brightness.  I actually dialed the brightness down one notch from the top as it seemed to be a bit too bright on the highest setting.  In retrospect, this will probably save quite a bit of battery power as well ( a non-issue based on my experience as you will see).

So with the reticle, color and brightness set, Angelo spotted as I lined up my DBAL-D2 visible laser on the heat warmer at center mass.  Once I had the laser on target with my bipod, I was able to enter the Advanced Submenu and adjust the windage and elevation of the RS to match the DBAL.  Five minutes, 3 shots at the target and a small adjustment after each, and I was ready to blast some Pork and Song Dogs...

We went out late Thursday with Angelo on what we thought would be a 'recon' mission, but that was all turned upside down when optimal conditions and an unlucky victim presented herself at the wrong end of an Angelo-controlled Sig rifle.  Angelo fired and connected at about 150 yards with an extremely pregnant sow and dropped her after a short 10 yard run across the ditch.

On this particular model, the FOV wasn't as wide as I would normally like for 'scanning', and with a hunting party too much sweeping isn't worth the risk.  So I still used the handheld LS-64 on Black Hot & Insta Lert 2 for locating our prey.  If I was hunting solo and the ranges were more like 300-600 yards, this particular model would be much better suited, but it is what it is.

THE HUNT
I think it's important to keep in mind when considering what I am writing, the weather was EXTREMELY tough on us during a few of our outings.  The temperatures were in the high 50's, the humidity was almost 100%, and there were pockets of fog and it had rained VERY hard for4-5 hours prior to us hitting the prairie.  The reason I mention this is pretty simple.  Upon first arriving, everything was exactly the same temperature.  The grass, the underbrush, the air temps, even the power poles.  When I turned on the FLIR RS, it booted up and I peered through it to see what I though for sure was a problem.  The display was just a grey-white blur with very little detail and no temperature indicated anywhere.  As I peered through, I reasoned that it must be out of focus and so I began to adjust to Objective Lens.  This yielded very little change and in fact I wasn't able to tell if I even had the unit focused at that point.  Later in the morning as things began to change temperature-wise I was able to refocus, but it was a bit unsettling to not know if the unit was working properly.  For that mornings hunt it turned out not to matter since we didn't see any animal life period.  Not even birds were moving during the miserable storm.

All that would change for our later evening outing.  Angelo, SkyPup and myself headed over to meet up at location #2 to scout for the weekend.  When we arrived, Angelo and I followed Dom and SkyPup for only about 250 yards down the trail when Dom exclaimed (in a hushed tone), 'Hold on...  Hog!'  At that point he signalled Angelo and I to move up.  The hog was less than 50 yards out, and for me partially obstructed by a tree, but I figured on letting Angelo get the first shot.  After a lengthy time trying to setup a shot, we counted down and fired. The hog jumped, darted left and became obscured by the dense brush and palmettos.  We attempted to track it, but no signs of blood were apparent, and the trail was obscured right where he darted.  The thing that I noticed right away now that the scope appeared to be focused and I had a live target at the other end was that the FOV was VERY limited.  This of course is due to the fact that my FLIR had a native 4x magnification at 1x mode.  We continued on for a bit, but there were no more hogs to be seen at location #2 on that evening.  However, upon returning to Dom's, Dom offered to take Angelo down to the prairie for a sneak peek at where we would be hunting on Saturday night.  About 10 minutes after Dom and Angelo left on foot (without rifles only PVS-14's, a revolver and an LS64), SkyPup and I heard a single pistol shot.  Not long after my cell phone rings, it's Dom and he says "We have eyes on a BFP (Big Fxxxing Pig) about 250 yards out! Bring a rifle down to us ASAP!"  SkyPup and I grabbed the RS64 equipped Sig 716 and made haste.  Not too long after, Angelo had his first hog of the weekend.  A 150-175 lb.pregnant sow!

Saturday night started out slow and ended with a bang for me back at location #2.  We decided to hunt the hogs 'desert rat' style and 4 of us piled into the bed of the pickup while Dom drove via his PVS-14 and a small IR illuminator.  We were less than 1/2 mile into it when 2 hogs appeared on the forest road.  We disembarked the vehicle and got to about 150 yards from them.  Angelo and I pulled out our Primos shooting BiPods and the other two went prone on the road.  Angelo and I targeted the pig on the right, and I think Kyle and SkyPup targeted the left hog.  The countdown commenced and when we reached zero there was a pretty loud roar.  Angelo and I synced up so well that the pig on the right just tipped over.  The necropsy later revealed a decent shoulder shot from my .223 and a lung shot from Angelo's Noveske 6.8.  The hog never stood a chance.  As for the other hog, it darted across to the right and jumped the canal.  When we approached, we thought it was laying right there as we could see a thermal spot through the LS64.  However, upon getting closer, we discovered it was a doe and her fawn that had coincidentally bedded down right there and were now spooked to move by our presence.  It was really amazing to see the two deer from about 15 feet just staring blankly at us until we moved even closer and they slowly took off.

That was the end of the action I saw, but Vic and others got more 'targets' in their sights.  Or at least they say they did! LOL!

THE PROS AND CONS
Back to the review though...  The RS is an awesome piece of equipment, BUT each user is going to have to consider their model selection very carefully to be completely satisfied.  The bigger lenses (60mm) are definitely going to allow you to reach out and spot things from a much further distance, but that's going to cost you precious FOV.  For the hunting we did (50-200 yards), the RS32 60mm was not well-suited.  It performed okay, and when I shot the hog at 150 yards it was pure bliss, but had something popped up closer to 75-100 yards, I might have missed it completely due to the 4x magnification reducing the FOV to such a small window.  For this reason, I was glad that SkyPup had given me the LS64 for our hunt.  Anything I needed early detection for was visible via the LS64.  If I had the RS64 35mm unit I probably would have died and gone to heaven, but I drew the short straw there.

The RS64 35mm is now on my Christmas list.  Unless of course, I find a way to finance that badass M-18 SkyPup was using!

Nice write up, Boss!

I was out at dusk after work last night trying to get some video out of each of the units to post to and compare.

I managed to get video out of two of the units, LS64-60mm and LS32-60mm when suddenly six coyotes appeared deep out in front of me 300 yards, in my rush to get my thermal equipped rifle up to blow them away, I ripped off the proprietary video cable from my min DVR, ending all possibilities of recording anymore video until I get a new cable.... On top of that, the dogs hung out deep for 5 minutes before disappearing in the thick cover...Ah Wah, I will get them next time with a vengeance...

I spent the rest of the time looking through each unit and mentally comparing them.

Like SpeedQuest described, both the 64 and 32 versions of the 60mm lens are long range units with restricted FOV, but you can see a real long way out, would be good for a .308 in an open field.

However, RS64-35mm lens (which I did not get a video of) was incredibly nice for everything that we do out 250 yards with great FOV and super clean view.

Surprisingly, the RS32-35mm was also very nice and coveedr the area very strongly with 1/2 the FOV of the 64 version, still for the discounted price of the 320 core it certainly is a very nice performer.

The most amazing surprise of the night was just how nice the littel RS32-19mm lens worked, I really did not think it would have been up to the task of making precise shots out 200 yards, but it certainly is, and very lightweight. For the cost conscious minded thermal night hunter, this thing is quite the kit to have.

Here are links to the two videos I was able to take prior to destroying the video cable connector, it was foggy, 78*F, drizzling, right before sundown so not very clear:

FLIR RS64-60mm internal digital control panel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahBI1H3sKvc


FLIR RS64-60mm internal digital control panel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dmvQqeWuOY

Just to let you all know, those two videos were taken in foggy, drizzling rain, 100% humidity, 78*F at dusk under the most adverse climactic weather conditions for thermal operation possible, everything was virtually monotemperature and the sun did not have a chance to even heat up anything all day long.

Here is a video from my FLIR T-70 weapon scope in the exact same location under normal environmental conditions at night for comparision, this is about the exact SAME view that you would get using the RS-64-35mm scope for those of you wanting this particular model:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-KsFm-S--Y

Some people were asking about BUIS and the FLIR RS thermal scopes....

Thanks SkyPup that's what I was hoping for, everything I own has BUIS and I wouldn't want to remove them.  The RS-32 35mm lens model just may have to find its way into my collection Since you've worked with these units would that model work for smaller critters out to 150ish yards?  I'd like to strike a good balance between range and FOV for scanning.  Thanks again for all the info.

There are a few dinosaurs like me that still have a fixed front sight base. Any thoughts on how badly that would interfere? The FSB can get a little warm.

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Skypup, you are an truly honest non-salesman...  Thanks for all sharing the pluses and minuses of thermal in general, and this product line specifically...

I'm in for the RS64-35mm...

All the RS scopes cleared my LDI DBAL-D2 on the front top rail, so NOT a problem....

That RS 32-35mm model will work perfectly fine on hogs and dogs out to 200+ yards without a problem, the RS 64-35mm would give you twice the FOV and improved clarity for ID but targeting would be about the same between the two, advise using NV for ID and you will be GTG.....

FLIR RS32-60mm with LDI DBAL-D2 on top front rail....not a problem.

That will get hot after about five rounds down a cold barrel.

There's a faint FSB-shaped brand on my support hand that attests to that.

I've been waiting on an excuse to build a nice, accurate low profile 5.56 upper or finish the .300blk anyway.

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For those that want to run all week on a single charge




http://www.ebay.com/itm/Waterproof-External-Battery-Emergency-Charger-Power-Camping-Outdoor-12000mAh-USB-/171251630961?pt=US_Tablet_eReader_Chargers_Sync_Cables&hash=item27df648371

Here it is a little cheaper ($52) AND with PRIME shipping you get it in 2 days:

http://www.amazon.com/New-Trent-PowerPak-Shockproof-Smartphones/dp/B00DUKJ5CQ/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393484303&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=15000mah+external+battery+waterproof

May just have to find a nice waterproof one that holds AA batteries and adapt it to a pic rail mount.  I wonder how well the USB connection does under recoil.

More for less

http://www.amazon.com/New-Trent-PowerPak-13500mAh-Smartphones/dp/B009TCUPIC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1393513696&sr=8-2&keywords=Trent+PowerPak+Xtreme

This one is smaller with a rubber coated case.
Anker® 2nd Gen Astro 6000mAh (2A Output) Portable Charger External Battery Pack

I have two of the Anker 15,000mAh, not waterproof, but very good.

One port charges at 1.0 amp and the other port at 2.1 amp for faster recharge.

What mini-DVR do you use with the FLIR, SP? Need to buy one to use with the RS I ordered.

The only waterproof easy to use in the dark one that I have is the SPI mini DVR, records both B/W and color.

I've been using two of them for three years now and although there are many cheaper and some more expensive ones I have used, so far this one is the best for me as I am in some difficult (muddy, swampy, heavy dense vegetation) most of the time.

Most mini DVR are crap and don't last long or take much abuse either, this one does.

It records and puts out 720X480 which is plenty for any thermal screen.

Most mini DVRs are either not waterproof or difficult to use in the dark, this one is simple to use and get recording without any hassle once you learn which button to press.

http://www.x20.org/waterproof-dvr-micro-digital-video-recorder

Why does this thermal scope say for non-game hunting and which one of these would be good for 50-200 yard shots on coyotes and hogs?
I was looking at other night vision scopes but this one in thermal fits my price range would the 19mm or 35mm work best for the hunting I will be doing.
http://tnvc.com/shop/flir-rs32-thermosight/

ETA: Will mostly be in wooded lots with shooting lanes

What legal game are you planning on hunting at night???

I am NOT aware of any legal game that you are allowed to hunt at night, at least not where I live.

Either the RS-64-35mm or RS-32-35mm will work just fine for your projected range.

Thanks Mike

Hogs and coyotes are not legal game, they are vermin.

There is no legal game hunting at night that I know of on private or public land.

Legal game are deer, turkeys, ducks, squirrels, etc.